Mali field test...

Thom has returned from Mali with over 400 images and video of the prototype being tested... I will post images soon!

TEDx Columbus - now online!

10 minutes to tell our story...

End to End test

This was the first end to end test of the stripper/thresher/winnower.

Dare I say...fabulous!

Thom had an moment of inspiration while tearing apart his dryer to fix it...he found a little plastic fan that put out LOTS of air with LITTLE movement. The yellow rig you see in the video is a hand cranked fertilizer applicator...not the final thing, but a HUGE leap forward...

Thom will be backing up the system, and himself, for a trip to Mali in December to test the system in remote villages. The system will most likely stay there, and we will continue to refine based on user feedback.

In the meantime, we await the first harvest of fresh millet from the USDA to validate the yield and time estimates...

TEDx Columbus

Thanks to all who came out to see the first TEDx Columbus to hear our little story!

I had lots to say, and only 10 minutes to say it, so I hope it all came out clearly...

I will post the videos as soon as they are ready...

Big thanks to Thom and Jeff for all the hard work, and to all the other people who have helped make this idea into something bigger...it will surely make a difference in the lives of others...

This is good stuff...

Winnower Prototype Test

It took some time, but our boy Thom created a winnower prototype that works like a charm! Built from simple PVC tube and a blower, Thom played with the tube diameter and air velocity until he dialed in the perfect airflow. Next step is to create a human powered way (hand or pedal) to provide the constant airflow (no easy task...too much air blows the seed out the top, too little does not winnow the material).







This is what threshed material looked like prior:




This is the remaining chaff:

And this is the winnowed seed:

Thom Rules!!!

Feed bin with integrated stripping

This direction looked promising, so I built a mock up to show what the final design might look like. The blue mesh on the rollers represents ex-met. One idea was to have a single roller with ex-met and rubber combined to give extra grip to the stripping end (bottom image).

V3 prototypes

Many thanks to Doug and Chris for stopping by and helping knock out some stripping/threshing prototypes!

Earlier in the week we had a idea session with a larger team, and today we mocked up some of the concepts to see how they worked:

Concept 1: "aperture" - A series of wires wound to create a sharp stripping edge while allowing for various sized panicles to be inserted. Image shows prototype and results.


Concept 2: "tube" - Beveled hole on curved surface to guide stripped material into thersher.

Concept 3: "pie tin" - Single hole in chamber to hold stripped material and then be dumped into thresher.

Breakthrough! - After mocking these up, we were wrestling with how to integrate the stripper into the existing roller assembly without having to force the user to insert or remove new pieces or re-position the system. It occured to us that we could utilize a smaller section of the rollers to integrate the stripping feature into the feed bin. This would allow the panicle to be stripped and the material to fall directly in to the rollers. Feeding the system one panicle at a time also "self metered" the amount of material fed into the rollers. We also added a guide at the bottom to separate the used panicle from the material.


This is a video of the 1st test:

Resulting millet, hand winnowed with cardboard: